Staple



March 24, 1953 THlEL 2,632,356

STAPLE Filed NOV. 21, 1949 INVENTOR JOSEPH A. THIEL BYWMW ATTORNEYPatented Mar. 24, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE-j, 2,632,356-

STAPLE Joseph A. This], St. Louis, Mo.

Application November 21, 1949, Serial No. 128,624

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvementsin staples and more particularly to staples having uniquely formed bightcapable of being driven into place by hammer without deflection ordeformation.

Conventional staples, which usually consist of a U-shaped integralsection of wire pointed at its ends, are hard to drive into placebecause of a well-known tendency on the part of the staple to bend ordeflect under angular blows of the hammer. Since the average mechaniccannot strike a staple with an absolutely direct blow each time but willusually direct the blow to a slight angle at least a few times in thecourse of driving the staple, a staple will very frequently bend, squashor twist out of its normal shape. Very frequently it becomes necessaryto remove the distorted staple and start over again with a new one. Notonly is this procedure time consuming and annoying but also results inthe rather costly wastage of a substantial number of staples during theperformance of each job.

Therefore, it is the primary object of the present invention to providea unique type of staple which is constructed so that it may be readilydriven into place without bending, squashing or other types of commonlyencountered distortion.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a staple with auniquely formed bight portion capable of receiving the impact of ahammer or any other type of driving blow without distortion ordeformation, so that the staple will maintain its shape substantiallyunaltered as it is being driven into place.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a staple ofthe type stated which can be driven into place with strong solid blowsWithout requiring the workman to take any particular precaution or carein the driving thereof, but it can be driven home, true and straight, inthe intended place, rapidly and quickly.

With the above and other objects in view, my invention resides in thenovel features of form, construction, arrangement, and combination ofparts presently described and pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying drawing- Figure 1 is a top plan view of a stapleconstructed in accordance with and embodying the present invention;

Figure 2 is a front elevational View of the staple; and

Figure 3 is a side elevational view of the staple.

Referring now in more detail and by reference characters to the drawing,which illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Adesignates a one-piece metal staple, formed preferably of steel wire andintegrally including two spaced parallel leg members I, 2, sharpened attheir free ends and provided with oppositely presented beveled faces 3,41. At their upper ends the leg members 2 are integrally joined by afiattened bight portion 5 which is somewhat Wider for the substantialportion of its length than the diametral size of the leg members I, 2,and at its ends tapers inwardly and merges into outwardly and downwardlyinclined neck portions 6, 6', which are constricted slightly as at I, I,and merge into the upper ends of the leg portions l, 2.

In use, the staple may be grasped in any conventional manner and set inplace over the position at which it is to be driven with the bightportion presented upwardly. The workman may then impact the staple withstrong, solid hammer blows directed upon the fiat bight portion 5. Ithas been found that these hammer blows, even though not directlyperpendicular to the plane of the top face of the bight portion 5, will,nevertheless, not cause the staple to twist or distort; in fact thestresses of the hammer blows will be distributed with substantialuniformity to both 16g members I, 2, and the staple will move downsquarely and truly into the work.

It should be understood that changes and modifications in the form,construction, arrangement, and combination of the several parts of thestaple may be made and substituted for those herein shown and describedwithout departing from the nature and principle of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

A staple made from wire stock comprising spaced parallel leg members ofsubstantially uniform circular cross-sectional shape, a bight memberdisposed at right angles to the leg members and extending therebetween,said bight member being flattened in a plane perpendicular to said legmembers and integrally joined at its opposite ends respectively to theupper ends of the leg members by straight neck portions of substantialcircular cross-sectional shape, said neck portions being disposed at anacute angle to each other and having a length which is short in relationto the length of the leg members but which is at least as long as thediametral dimension of said neck portion, the junction of each neck 3portion with its associated leg member being cir- Number cumferentiallyconstricted. 324,126 JOSEPH A. THIEL. 401,343 578,100 REFERENCES CITED 5977, 15 The following references are of record in the 1,159,527 file ofthis patent: 2 2,380,786 UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,457454 Number NameDjate: 1 303,398 Phillips Aug. 12; 1884 4 Name Date Legay Aug. 11, 1885Gildemeyer Apr. 16, 1889 Hay Mar. 2, 1897 Goss Dec. 6, 1910 Mosman Nov.9, 1915 Wickwire May 28, 1935 Percoco July 31, 1945 Dunlap Dec. 28, 1948

